Prior apparatus for manufacturing heat exchanger cores have been primarily hydraulically operated. The use of hydraulic equipment requires a relatively large footprint in order for the machine to operate. Further, in order to conserve floor space with prior hydraulic machines, some of the hydraulics are placed above the assembling apparatus. This configuration does not allow for easy access to the machine for servicing or normal maintenance. Additionally, the operation and control of hydraulically operated machines is relatively inaccurate when compared to other control processes.
These prior apparatus and methods are not very flexible in that they do not allow for the easy manipulation of the machine to manufacture heat exchanger cores of various sizes. Thus, considerable down time is required to adjust the machine to handle different size heat exchanger cores. Further, these prior apparatus are relatively slow in that they are not able to load the tubes and fins used to assemble the heat exchanger cores onto the machine very quickly. For example, these prior apparatus can only manufacture about 40 to 45 cores per hour.
Thus, prior machines are bulky, relatively expensive and inaccurate, consume large areas of otherwise useable space, and leave much to be desired as throughput.
Additionally, most core builders have matrix types of assembly (alternating fin and tube). These core builders have difficulties dealing with the transition of one core to a successive core. For instance, the transfer mechanism does not always select the proper components required for the core and the mechanism sometimes damages the fins or tubes in the core.